JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Sarah Palin and her family started their day at the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, made their way to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, and are now stopped at a hotel parking lot here, with a dinner meeting with Donald Trump on tap for the evening and a stop at Ellis Island expected for tomorrow.

In Philadelphia earlier, Palin acknowledged the awkwardness of taking off on the tour without making either the itinerary or purpose clear to the media, but said, “It’s not really an intention to play cat and mouse.”

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VIDEO: Palin on tour

POLITICO 44

Palin has been trailed down the highway by reporters, and in Philadelphia, was mobbed by over 200 reporters and supporters as she made the brief walk from Independence Hall to the Liberty Bell. In a brief interview as she stood next to the Liberty Bell, she said the chaotic nature of her tour is only out of respect for the other people making visits.

“It’s quite chaotic anywhere we get off on the bus,” she said “We don’t want to interrupt any people or their nice plans for vacation.”

She called the response “amazing,” and the reaction from her supporters “encouraging.”

Palin continues to say that she’s waiting to make up her mind on running for president, but her aides have indicated that a favorable response to the bus tour would push her closer toward a campaign.

But whatever the field, Palin says she liked Republicans’ chances going into 2012.

“I think most of the candidates who are lining up have a good chance of beating President Obama because people are very anxious about the economy,” she said.

On the road into Philadelphia from Gettysburg, Palin and her family stopped at a coffee shop in Dillsburg, where sat down at a table with three older men, digging in for a conversation with them while her family ordered food to eat on the bus.

Palin used their response to her question about the biggest issue facing the country — “cutting spending,” they said — to gently taunt the members of the media who were clumped in the small coffee shop’s entryway.

One of the men called his wife and told her to rush over to take a photograph. Another, retired furniture store owner Richard Weigel, asked her to declare her candidacy for president right here in Dillsburg.

“I gotta make up my mind first,” Palin said.

Despite her taunting and an effort to keep the details of the tour away from the media — including sneaking off to the Gettysburg battlefield on Tuesday morning while reporters staked out the tour bus in the parking lot of the hotel where the Palins spent the night — Palin did weigh in on two questions shouted at her by reporters, starting with cutting ethanol subsidies.

“I think all of our energy subsidies need to be re-looked at and eliminated,” Palin said. “The bottom line, we can’t afford it.”

It's obvious that Sarah is running for president -- deceptively, of course, so she can still pick up her fat Fox checks and ignore campaign finance laws. If she's met with jeers and boos on this tour (and others that will follow), as she was in Philadelphia during the McCain presidential campaign, and her rehabilitative tour doesn't improve her poll numbers, then she can quit her race without ever having to admit she ever ran.

Journalists are not doing us any good service in trying to follow the Palin chaos (except maybe revealing the potential chaos of a Palin-led country). Behind the chaos is a politically undereducated housewife who stoops to use superficial patriotic overtures to seduce more suckers into sending her PAC more money so Palin can continue to live high on the hog off the labor of others and jet about the country delivering toxic speeches (written by others) full of snide and snark and malignant fictions (e.g., "death panels"). It is no accident that her bus features her PAC address. It is no accident that her people refer everyone to her PAC website. The first question one encounters on her site is: Do you want to make a contribution? Journalists should not be aiding in that kind of mercenary jingoism, especially when Palin as much as smugly says sticking it to the “lamestream” journalists is part of her little sadistic plan. Palin is making monkeys of the press (and accidentally, her supporters) and properly ignoring her would reduce her monies and influence and make the joke ultimately on her.

It is nothing but a photo-op to keep herself in the news. If she was really running as you people keep saying . . . Faux News would have ended her contract the same as with Rommey and others. Please give us a rest with this foolish woman. Enough already!